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South Korean Coast Guard opens fire at fleet of fortified Chinese fishing boats in their waters

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South Korean officials have reported a confrontation between their national coast guard and a flotilla of “reinforced” Chinese fishing vessels believed to be poaching fish from South Korea’s exclusive economic zone. The incident only ended after the South Korean boats fired 249 rounds of automatic and small arms fire in the vicinity of the Chinese boats.

A fleet of more than forty Chinese fishing ships crossed into South Korean waters near the nation’s southwest coast, where they were initially intercepted and ordered to leave. These sorts of interactions are not uncommon; the South Korean Coast Guard regularly has to run Chinese poachers out of their waters. These particular Chinese fishing boats were prepared for a confrontation with South Korean authorities however; as they had been fortified with iron bars and steel mesh.

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Comments

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  • Roger Hicks

    The SK Coast Guard could use some Carl Gustaf rockets.. Launch a smoke round or two at the fortified boats.. The PLA captain of the boats would know what would come next should they not turn away.. BTW.. I love those Carl Gustaf rockets.. very handy to have.

  • Hyun P

    This is why even Hong Kong residents call mainland Chinese as locusts. They'll devour everything in sight whether it belongs to neighbor or not.

  • Pat G

    South Korea's Coast Guard first broadcasts warnings, then fires warning shots at a group of Chinese fishing vessels, in South Korean waters, who swarm around a coast guard ship in a threatening manner. Certainly sounds like a reasonable response. Beijing's reaction is to admonish South Korea to show restraint. Figures! China thinks they own all the waters over there, and have published maps showing that. And as the article points out, this isn't the first time this has happened. Not long ago Chinese vessels swarmed an SK Coast Guard ship and sank it, the crew had to jump overboard! The thing that seems ominous about China is that they had that one-child policy for about 30 years, millions of girls were aborted, and now they have a surplus of men which is the greatest gender imbalance in the world. Tens of millions of men who can't find wives - that's a demographic time bomb, and could set the stage for war. Thanks, Alex.